Tattoos were a growing and accepted phenomenon in Victorian England

April 27, 2020 10:09 AM

"When [Thomas Whitton] arrived on the shores of Australia a year later, the brown haired, blue-eyed Londoner had acquired some interesting tattoos on his long voyage. On his right arm there was a tribute to a girl with the words "love to thy heart" and on his left, images of two men with a bottle and glass, a mermaid, an anchor and the initials "R.R." Whitton (who was eventually freed at the age of 20) was just one of 58,002 Victorian convicts whose tattoo descriptions we found as we data-mined the judicial archives (criminaltattoos.github.io). At the time, some commentators believed that "persons of bad repute" used tattoos to mark themselves "like savages" as a sign they belonged to a criminal gang. But our database reveals that convict tattoos expressed a surprisingly wide range of positive and indeed fashionable sentiments. And convicts were by no means the only Victorians who acquired them." (CNN)

These records (digitalpanopicon.org) allow us to see -- for the first time -- that historical tattooing was not restricted to sailors, soldiers and convicts, but was a growing and accepted phenomenon in Victorian England. Tattoos provide an important window into the lives of those who typically left no written records of their own. As a form of "history from below", they give us a fleeting but intriguing understanding of the identities and emotions of ordinary people in the past.

The Victorian Tattooing Craze Started With Convicts and Spread to the Royal Family (Smithsonian):

The Digital Panopticon team used data-mining techniques to extract information on tattoos from broader descriptive records of criminals imprisoned in both Britain and Australia [...] Using these data points, the team created a unique set of visualizations exploring such topics as changing tattoo trends over time, males' versus females' chosen tattoo subjects, and correlations between subjects. Between 1821 and 1920, naval themes, religious symbols and tokens of love topped the tattoo chart, while images of justice and punishment, America, and sex were rarely inked. The most popular tattoo location was the arm, followed by the elbow, and the most popular tattoo subjects were names and initials.

posted by not_the_water (6 comments total)

This is very interesting. I've been wondering how common it was for women to have tattoos in the early 20th century ever since I found out that Delaware Senator's daughter and suffragist Florence Bayard Hilles had a suffrage tattoo. It's mentioned on her passport application. Someone could do a similar study with old passport applications.
posted by interplanetjanet at 10:54 AM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

At the time, some commentators believed that "persons of bad repute" used tattoos to mark themselves "like savages" as a sign they belonged to a criminal gang.

Wild, I didn’t think my parents were that old.
posted by mhoye at 10:54 AM on April 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

"Everything old is new again."
posted by mermayd at 11:01 AM on April 27, 2020

If you're really quiet, you can hear the satisfaction of a hundred thousand goth steam punk kids.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:23 PM on April 27, 2020

I was surprised at an exhibition of Burne Jones stuff a couple of years ago to see a sketch of a large lady with a terrific tattoo right across her back (revealed by a sort of swimsuit). Hey, I thought, these Victorians were more relaxed than we realised.

On reading the label I found she was Emma de Burgh, a celebrated show lady from America.
posted by Segundus at 1:38 PM on April 27, 2020

The Victorian Tattooing Craze Started With Convicts and Spread to the Royal Family

See also: piercings.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:46 PM on April 27, 2020 [2 favorites]